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“Crafting the music in this film was probably one the most exciting and frustrating parts of making this film, I love music and I often agonised about the choices I was making and why, in the end it has become one the strongest parts of the film, PHEW!! – IDRIS ELBA

Idris Elba (OBE), one of Britain’s greatest actors releases his directorial debut Yardie, in cinemas across the UK on 31st August, based on the 1992 book by Victor Headley – watch the trailer here. Set in 1970’s Kingston, Jamaica and 1980’s Hackney, London – Island Records UK will release the Original Soundtrack, spanning music across two decades.

Speaking about his decision to direct the film Idris Elba says “Yardie is a story about a young man dealing with the trauma of losing a sibling at the tender age of 10. Victor Headley’s book was one of the few books I read as teenager, I’m not a big reader, so this was a big deal to me at the time and the story stuck to my ribs for many years”.

Yardie centres on the life of a young Jamaican man named D (Aml Ameen), who has never fully recovered from the murder, committed during his childhood, of his older brother Jerry Dread (Everaldo Creary). D grows up under the wing of a Kingston Don and music producer named King Fox (Sheldon Shepherd). Fox dispatches him to London, where he reconnects with his childhood sweetheart, Yvonne (Shantol Jackson), and his daughter who he’s not seen since she was a baby. He also hooks up with a soundclash crew, called High Noon. But before he can be convinced to abandon his life of crime and follow “the righteous path”, he encounters the man who shot his brother 10 years earlier, and embarks on a bloody, explosive quest for retribution — a quest which brings him into conflict with vicious London gangster Rico (Stephen Graham).

Published in 1992, Victor Headley’s Yardie proved an instant cult hit. Put out by a two-man independent publishing operation, X Press, it was sold at clothing stores and outside nightclubs rather than in traditional bookshops, and through strong word-of-mouth sold 30,000 copies.